Low bid will save WPLS $174,000

A winning bidder has been selected to provide Internet service to the Western Plains Library System, said Director Tim Miller. Dobson Technologies came in as the lowest bidder at $125,820, and it will link all eight library branches back to WPLS headquarters here in Clinton — as long as WPLS’s application to the federal E-Rate program is approved. 
“We selected a vendor for our WAN (wide-area-network), but we still have to apply through the E-Rate program and get approval from them,” Miller said. “Normally we hear in six to eight weeks. We usually put our request in the first day you’re allowed to, so we’re usually in the first wave of the approvals they release.”
WPLS has applied to the federal program every four years since it began 19 years ago. As Miller had predicted, this time around Internet service will be provided to the library system at a much lower cost than it had been in previous years. The previous vendor’s costs were around $300,000. 
“We had three bidders come to our required meeting, including our current vendor.  Their bid was the highest unfortunately, but that wasn’t surprising given the particular type of technology they use. 
“Two of the bids were really close together and one of them — Dobson — was really cheap. They underbid the job on purpose I think, to get the account, and good for them. It’s certainly good for us.”
The first day E-Rate funding requests can be submitted is Wednesday, and WPLS will be ready. The program is handled by an independent government agency that isn’t affected by the shutdown, Miller said. 
The winning bidder must deliver a completed network by July 1 and work can commence whenever the vendor chooses. The job will entail laying fiber in the ground to each of WPLS’s eight branches over four counties. Since that aspect of the work is considered a construction project, technology companies usually hire local contractors to do it, Miller said. 
“I don’t work in the telecommunications business, but my experience of it has been that they will hire a firm that specializes in that to actually dig the trench in the ground and lay the cable. Dobson is the phone company that will service the account. 
“We have a long history with Dobson,” he said. “We’ve used them for services in the past so we’re glad they bid.”